The Secret of Habits: The Real-World Guide To Turning Small Changes Into Lifelong Transformations

This is a book for real people about making changes in the real world.

When it comes to making life changes, most of us tend to focus our energy and willpower on the wrong things. We focus too much on the goal, pushing a sudden spurt of willpower towards something far in the distance. But no one can maintain a steady stream of willpower over days, months, or years. So when we inevitably get of track, we try to guilt or shame ourselves into acting more appropriately. This fails as well, leaving us feeling generally guilty and bad about ourselves without producing any decent results.

In short, we plan our success around being perfect every day for the rest of our lives. Precarious to say the least.

Instead, I suggest a different strategy. Since willpower exists in a limited quantity, and tends to come and go over time, use your burst of motivation to change your environment and build systems and commitments around the habits that will change your life.

This book is about how to make those changes and build those systems, and how to use them to leverage the power of small changes across the course of your life.